DST sponsors instrument worth Rs 2.87 crore for Pondicherry University

PUDUCHERRY: The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has sponsored an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS) worth Rs 2.87 crore for Pondicherry University’s Central Instrumentation Facility (CIF) under its Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (Purse) scheme.
The DST sponsored the sophisticated instrument for Pondicherry University recognizing its research contribution.Installed at the CIF, the instrument will be available to students, scholars, researchers and industries for research work in surface science. XPS will add momentum to the ongoing cutting-edge research activities in the university.
XPS is a versatile instrument to analyse the surface chemistry of a material with nanometre accuracy. The surface properties of materials differ from that of the inside. The surface mapping gives pictorial information on the location and distribution of elements. XPS provides elemental chemical information and its concentration from the surface. The instrument’s depth profiling mode slices the material’s surface by nanometre and analyses the corresponding chemistry in depth.
The instrument’s uniqueness to differentiate oxidation states of the elements and its distribution along material is highly valuable for advanced research in material science, physics, chemistry, nanotechnology, engineering and biological sciences among others.
Pondicherry University vice-chancellor Gurmeet Singh formally inaugurated the sophisticated instrument on Wednesday in the presence of CIF head Bala Manimaran, head of department of physics V V Ravi Kanth Kumar, DST-Purse phase II coordinator K Suresh Babu, faculty in charge of XPS and other faculty members of the CIF.